Welcome to the South West England Field Target Association Website

This website covers all the activities of the SWEFTA and its shooting competitions.

Around the site you will find a calendar of events and competitions, Results, Shooters Grades, a Clubfinder as well as SWEFTA official documentation & rules.

What are Field Target and Hunter Field Target?

Field Target

Field Target (FT) is a safe and modern shooting sport suitable for people of a wide range of ages and physical abilities. Field target competitions are carried out under rules which can be found elsewhere on this web site.

Field target competitions are held outdoors, making use of the varied terrain of farmland and woodland with targets positioned out in the open, uphill, downhill or in trees. so as to form varied and challenging shooting courses. Metal knock-down targets of various shapes are used, the targets have a circular ‘kill zone’ and when a pellet hits the kill zone the entire target falls down and a point is scored.

A field target course usually consists of 40 targets, positioned at ranges of between 10 and 55 yards. Most can be shot from a sitting position, however a few lanes must be shot standing or kneeling to add variety and challenge to the shoot.

Field Target is also a very sociable hobby, indeed half the fun of visiting a club or entering a competition lies in enjoying a shared interest with like-mined shooting enthusiasts.

Field Target competitions have a number of classes, from C to AA, this allows shooters to compete against others of similar ability.

Hunter Field Target

Hunter Field Target (HFT) is shot along the same lines as FT, but is a different discipline.The full rules can be found on this web site.

Like FT, metal knock down targets are used, a typical HFT course has a similar number of targets to an FT course (sometimes less), however, the lanes and shooting methods are slightly different as each lane is marked with a peg and targets are placed in positions to simulate a hunting scenario.

Target on an HFT course tend to have smaller ‘kill zones’ or are part obscured by ‘natural’ obstacles and both the method of scoring and the equipment used for HFT are slightly different from FT.

The main skill in HFT is the ability to assess the range of the target as accurately as possible, as adjustments to the sight for range finding are not allowed once you are ready to shoot.

There are separate classes in both FT and HFT for spring and precharged air rifles, and the members of any of the clubs within SWEFTA will be able to help and advise regarding equipment.